Hernandez is denied bail in Mass. murder case FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — A judge on Thursday denied bail for former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of a friend. Hernandez’s lawyer argued that Hernandez is not a risk to flee and the case against him is circumstantial. But a prosecutor said the evidence is “overwhelming.” A search of a Hummer belonging to Hernandez turned up an ammunition clip matching the caliber o...

Body of NYC storm victim lay undetected for months NEW YORK (AP) — In the chaotic days after Superstorm Sandy, an army of aid workers streamed onto the flood-ravaged Rockaway Peninsula looking for anyone who needed help. Health workers and National Guard troops went door to door. City inspectors checked thousands of dwellings for damage. Seaside neighborhoods teemed with utility crews, Red Cross trucks and crews clearing debris. Yet, even as the months dragged by, nobody thought to look inside...

Goodbye M&M’s, hello granola bars as school snacks WASHINGTON (AP) — Kids, your days of blowing off those healthier school lunches and filling up on cookies from the vending machine are numbered. The government is onto you. For the first time, the Agriculture Department is telling schools what sorts of snacks they can sell. The new restrictions announced Thursday fill a gap in nutrition rules that allowed many students to load up on fat, sugar and salt despite the existing guidelines for healt...

Flavor experiment: Washington farmer feeds pot to pigs SNOHOMISH, Wash. (AP) — The white van with tinted windows pulled up to the driveway with its cargo - cardboard boxes full of marijuana. And the customers eagerly awaited it, grunting and snorting. The deal was going down for three hungry Berkshire pigs from a Washington state farm, and a German television crew was there to film it. Part flavor experiment, part green recycling, part promotion and bolstered by the legalization of recreational ma...

Texas carries out its 500th execution since 1982 HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — Texas marked a solemn moment in criminal justice Wednesday evening, executing its 500th inmate since it resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982. Kimberly McCarthy, who was put to death for the murder of her 71-year-old neighbor, was also the first woman executed in the U.S. in nearly three years. McCarthy, 52, was executed for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor ...

US immigration bill cruising to Senate passage WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweeping U.S. immigration legislation cruised toward passage in the Senate on Wednesday, but Republicans in the House of Representatives pursued a different approach that cracks down on millions living in the United States illegally rather than offering them a chance at citizenship. Presidential politics took a more prominent role as Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican and potential 2016 White House contender, tried to reassure fe...

Paula Deen dropped by Wal-Mart after ’Today’ tears NEW YORK (AP) — Paula Deen was dropped by Wal-Mart and her name was stripped from four buffet restaurants on Wednesday, hours after she went on television and tearfully defended herself amid the mounting fallout over her admission of using a racial slur. The story has become both a day-by-day struggle by a successful businesswoman to keep her career afloat and an object lesson on the level of tolerance and forgiveness in society for being caug...

Trayvon Martin’s friend describes final phone call SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — A friend who was on the phone with 17-year-old Trayvon Martin moments before he was fatally shot by George Zimmerman testified that she heard the Miami teen shout, “Get off! Get off!” before his telephone went dead. Rachel Jeantel, 19, recounted to jurors in Zimmerman’s second-degree murder trial how Martin told her he was being followed by a man as he walked through the Retreat at Twin Lakes townhome complex on his way ba...

It’s complicated: Lots to sort out on gay marriage WASHINGTON (AP) — Two landmark Supreme Court rulings that bolster gay marriage rights don’t remove all barriers to same-sex unions by a long shot. Where gay couples live still will have a lot to do with how they’re treated. Some questions and answers about Wednesday’s court rulings: Q: Can you boil down these two big rulings — 104 pages in all — to the basics? A: In one case, the court said legally married gay couples are entitled to the same ...

Supreme Court ruling worries blacks in Ala county COLUMBIANA, Ala. (AP) — Much has changed in Shelby County since Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act to protect minority rights at the polls, but much hasn’t. The county — which successfully challenged one of the law’s key provisions before the U.S. Supreme Court — has grown exponentially in the past five decades, yet its racial balance has remained roughly constant with whites constituting an overwhelming majority of the population. Bla...

Al-Qaida said to be changing its ways after leaks WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to salvage their surveillance of al-Qaida and other terrorists who are working frantically to change how they communicate after a National Security Agency contractor leaked details of two NSA spying programs. It’s an electronic game of cat-and-mouse that could have deadly consequences if a plot is missed or a terrorist operative manages to drop out of sight. Terrorist groups had alway...

After abortion setback, Texas GOP set to try again AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — After a one-woman filibuster and a raucous crowd helped derail a GOP-led effort to restrict Texas abortions, Gov. Rick Perry announced Wednesday that he’s calling lawmakers back next week to try again. Perry ordered the Legislature to meet July 1 to begin 30 more days of work. Like the first special session, which ended in chaos overnight, the second one will include on its agenda a Republican-backed plan that critics say ...

Pro football player Hernandez charged with murder ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) — New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder in the shooting death of a friend prosecutors say had angered the NFL player at a nightclub a few days earlier by talking to the wrong people. Hernandez, 23, was taken from his North Attleborough home in handcuffs just over a week after Boston semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd’s bullet-riddled body was found in an industrial ...

NIH to retire most chimps from medical research WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s official: The National Institutes of Health plans to end most use of chimpanzees in government medical research, saying humans’ closest relatives “deserve special respect.” The NIH announced Wednesday that it will retire about 310 government-owned chimpanzees from research over the next few years, and keep only 50 others essentially on retainer — available if needed for crucial medical studies that could be performed no ...

Murder conviction against US Marine overturned SAN DIEGO (AP) — The military’s highest court overturned a murder conviction Wednesday against a Camp Pendleton Marine in one of the most significant cases against American troops from the Iraq war. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces threw out the conviction of Sgt. Lawrence Hutchins III of Plymouth, Mass., who has served about half of his 11-year sentence. According to the ruling posted on the court’s website, the judges agreed with Hu...

Lawmakers want more details before funding Syria WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is balking at the administration’s first attempt to pay for lethal aid to the Syrian rebels until the White House presents a more fully developed proposal than one they received last week from Secretary of State John Kerry, including options for what the U.S. will do next if the initial surge of arms fails to improve the rebels’ standing in the civil war that’s gone on for more than two years. Lawmakers last week rej...

Artists, activists unite at Bradley Manning trial FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Clark Stoeckley is Bradley Manning’s most visible supporter at the soldier’s court-martial. He arrives each day in a white box truck with bold words painted on the sides: “WikiLeaks TOP SECRET Mobile Information Collection Unit.” The provocative gag even has a nonworking satellite dish and two fake security cameras on it. Stoeckley, a 30-year-old art instructor at a New Jersey college, is among the more colorful of the 1...

Slower US growth might lead Fed to delay tapering WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy may not be strong enough for the Federal Reserve to slow its bond purchases later this year. That’s the takeaway from economists after the government cut its estimate Wednesday of growth in the January-March quarter to a 1.8 percent annual rate, sharply below its previous estimate of a 2.4 percent rate. The main reason: Consumers spent less than previously thought. Most economists think growth will remain low...

Microsoft tweaks Windows 8, blamed for PC slump SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is trying to reverse slumping PC sales and quiet growing criticism of its flagship operating system with the release of a revised version of Windows 8. On Wednesday, Microsoft made a preview version of Windows 8.1 available for download. It includes alterations meant to address consumer dissatisfaction with the operating system. Analysts believe users’ frustration with Windows 8 is partly to blame for the biggest...

Couple lets coffee drinkers choose baby name WEST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut couple has named its baby with help from customers at a Starbucks coffee shop. Twenty-five-year-old Jennifer James and 24-year-old Mark Dixon of West Haven told the New Haven Register (http://bit.ly/1adT5d6 ) they had been struggling between two names for the boy they are expecting in September, so they decided to put it to a vote. They placed signs at the Starbucks on the New Haven Green, where they are ...